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Estimator’s Edge

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2021 August

Proposals Reprised, Part 2

It feels like déjà vu all over again.—Yogi Berra Last month we established five distinct components to an effective proposal: the opening statement, the pricing breakout, an inclusions list, an exclusions list and...

2021 July

Proposals Reprised, Part 1

And I feel like I’ve been here before …—from Déjà vu by David Crosby Generally speaking, I don’t like to repeat subjects for this column all that much. The most convincing reason for...

2021 June

Climbing the Ladder

Move on up, keep on wishin’…your dream is your only scheme…—Curtis Mayfield A few years ago, you, a successful exactimator, surrendered to the clarion call of your entrepreneurial spirit and started up your...

2021 April

The Waiting Game

Every now and then—maybe once in a lifetime—the course of a bidmeister’s experience brings him to one of those golden opportunities that looks almost too good to be true. This column documents my own past...

2021 March

What’s Up, Doc(s)?

I recently had occasion to review a contract for a mid-size office-building job that I had bid and had actually been awarded. It had been so long since I scored, I had almost forgotten how...

2021 February

Death by a Thousand Tiny Cuts

Like everyone, I’m trying to look at this new year with some guarded optimism. 2021 can only be an improvement over 2020 for a lot of us, but I don’t expect the afflictions common to...

January 2021

Lessons Learned

We got no principles, and we got no innocence … —  “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper It seems a bit counter-intuitive, but many of us guesstimators have noticed an uptick in the construction...

2020 December

Big Bulging Budget

You’ve heard rumblings about this gargantuan hotel project for months, maybe years, but nothing had ever come of it. It was rumored to consist of a 40-floor high-rise tower destined to be planted smack-dab in...